Fate's Hand
by YarningChick
Summary: Extended epilogue to Fate.  Naoko's done some pretty dumb things in her life.  But a certain Creation isn't done interfering yet, and forgiveness can be a beautiful thing.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Still inside the strange time bubble, Naoko moved past the soldiers, having to bend a bit in order to squeeze between them. Suddenly her frame shook.

'_What am I doing? My baby's in the middle of a hostile army, and I'm running away?!' _She turned and tried to maneuver around the big black cats again. Just because she was fighting with her daughter didn't mean that she was going to leave Haru alone in her hour of need. A firm hand grabbed her shoulder from behind, making the red-haired human turn and shriek from surprise. A strange red cat was behind her, wincing from her vocal talents.

"Yes, that is definitely the side of the family Mother got her lungs from." His voice was deep tenor, with a heavy British accent. Naoko stared at him, stunned to see a cat wearing clothes, let alone a crisp cream-colored suit complete with a top hat. She tried to shake off the hand (?!) that he was still holding her with.

"I still don't know what you cats want, but my girl's in danger, and I'm-" the cat raised his other hand to silence her, and then pointed in the direction Haru was in. She turned, and gasped in astonishment. A red cat just like the one next to her was removing a dagger from her frozen daughter's grasp, slipping it into an unseen pocket, and then picking her up awkward way, like she was a statue. Naoko turned back to the cat next to her, more confused than ever. He grinned.

"As you can see, my past self is already removing your daughter from the danger zone. She will shortly be with her fiancé." Naoko relaxed a bit, the important part taken care of.

"Just who are you? What's going on around here?" He chuckled, removing his hand in order to place his top hat over his heart in a gentlemanly greeting.

"I probably should have introduced myself first thing. I am Jonathan Renaldo von Gikkingen." Naoko's eyes clouded in confusion.

"Renaldo?" she whispered, suddenly knowing why the shade of his fur looked so familiar. He chuckled again as she raised one hand to her hair, reading her mind.

"That's right. When I'm born about a year from your time, I'll be your first grandchild." Naoko could hardly breathe, stunned beyond words.

"But…how…" He grinned again.

"I'm a time-traveling Creation, and certain events necessitated my presence before and during my parents' courtship. Come along; there are a few things that you need to see." He waved his hand slightly, and a hole appeared in front of them. On the other side, Naoko could see a cozy office set in a homey atmosphere. Jonathan took a step towards it, and then noticed her reluctance. He smiled and held out his arm to her. "Don't worry; the sensation's similar to walking between rooms." Still feeling a bit weird, she slowly put her hand on the offered arm and let him guide her into the office. He settled her down in a cozy couch before hanging his coat and hat on the rack behind the oak desk.

"You like green mint tea with a slight squeeze of lemon, correct?" Naoko nodded, studying the strange cat as he made tea for both of them. Besides the red hair, she couldn't really tell any similarities between him and Haru. Her daughter had never been one to be obsessive over good behavior, and this cat's manners were smoothly cut and polished like a faceted jewel.

"You take after your father, don't you?" Jonathan nodded, a smile creeping across his lips while his green eyes lit up.

"Mother's always been tickled by the fact, and likes to say that the world could use more men like Father." He walked up to her and offered a steaming teacup. She took it, inhaling the familiar fumes gratefully. He sat in the seat beside her, taking a sip. "Her plan to have you go to the portal tower was faulty, so I would have had to intervene, even if I had nothing to tell you." Naoko's senses were returning with the warm beverage.

"You said you were a Creation. What does that mean?" He looked at her, and then chuckled.

"I can see this is going to take a while. When someone creates something with all their hopes and dreams, the object is given a soul, like Father. I'm actually half Creation, but that's beside the point. Tell me, do you know why that cat would want Mother to return to being human badly enough to drag you into the picture?" She shuddered, remembering the kidnapping process.

"I don't have a clue; does it have to do with her turning him down for a date or something?" Jonathan just laughed.

"Not quite. The body used to belong to a moronic cat that pursued Mother despite the fact that she didn't want anything to do with him. The soul inside the cat was a servant of an enemy of mine. He was trying to make sure that I and my siblings would never be born." Naoko looked at him.

"How many siblings do you have?" He grinned and shook his head.

"If I won't tell my mother, than I can't tell you. Just bear in mind that her life's been lengthened tremendously by human standards, she's marrying an attractive mate that admires her greatly in body and spirit, and that he will live as long as she will. That's as far as I'll go on the subject. Returning to the prior one, my parents both possess a strong knack for sticking their noses in others' business, a factor greatly magnified in their offspring. At least we use the knack to advantage of those who truly need it, but we have gained a few powerful enemies that are less than amused by our activities, hence why that servant traveled back in time to try and change Mother's destiny." Naoko took another sip, pondering.

"Why did you wait to freeze time until after she chose to fight? She could have chosen to become human again." He nodded.

"Granted, but if I had interfered sooner, than the unanswered question would have torn her apart, and I've put her through enough grief to last the rest of her life." She looked at him.

"What do you mean?" He sighed, setting his teacup aside.

"In order for me and my siblings to be born under the correct conditions, I had to put Mother through a series of trials to make her stronger than she would have been otherwise. After she found out what I had done and why, she even thanked me for it, but I can't help but still feel guilty for everything I had done to her. I didn't and still don't enjoy making my mother cry." Jonathan looked down, a terrible expression on his face as he struggled not to succumb to tears. Naoko placed one hand on his shoulder for comfort, confused at what he was trying to say. He suddenly turned and embraced her hard. She stiffened for a second, but then put the teacup down in order to hug him back.

'_All right, now I see my daughter in him. She loves hugs too.'_ Jonathan finally released her, a sad smile still present.

"That's partially why I brought you here. You need to see for yourself why Mother chose that moment of all times to be selfish." He faced the opposite wall and concentrated. Naoko turned toward the wall too, slightly surprised when a mist gathered to form a picture of a high tower slightly off-center, dust still settling from who knows what. Jonathan leaned back. "This will be similar to a movie to you. If the situation wasn't so serious, I would have started some popcorn."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

_The dust was finally settling to the ground, like a dark fog. Near the top of the tower, on a ledge, a brown cat wearing a human schoolgirl's uniform was lying on her back, her caramel eyes wide and unseeing. She wasn't even breathing, and her left arm was bent at a funny angle._

Naoko gasped.

"Haru!" She tried to get off the couch, but Jonathan held her down by the shoulder, his expression grim.

_Far underneath the cat, a disheveled-looking longhair wearing gold and a jewel rushed toward the tower with several guards and attendants, a gleeful smile taking over his face._

"_Quick! Quick! Get her…hey wait. Where'd Haru go?" He looked around confused. Far above him, the brown cat pulled an angry face and took a shaky breath. She sat up, staring at a spot close to the top of the tower, her left arm limp at her side. She sniffed the air disbelievingly._

"_Car fumes?" She whispered, barely even mouthing the words. Haru struggled to get to her knees as the screen split to show a gray cat wearing a white soldier's uniform as he came out of an underground network near the base of the tower. His widening red and blue eyes matched that of the longhair._

"_What in the world has Father done now? Father!" He ran for the tower, red uniformed militia following him. Haru looked down at the gray cat and panicked. She hurried back to her feet and headed inside the tower to start dragging herself up the stairs. The disheveled cat looked up and saw her as his son approached._

"_There's Haru! Get her guys-"_

"_No, leave her be." The gray cat stood up straight and looked his father in the eye. "What have you done to the girl?" The father suddenly looked bashful, and started playing with his paws as Haru continued to climb upwards. _

"_I just wanted to repay the girl that rescued you. I thought that you would be happy to have a good-looking girl like Haru for a bride."_

Naoko gasped. Haru had saved a cat, and was brought to the Cat Kingdom for it? She was definitely her father's daughter.

_The gray cat shook his head, his eyes slitted and angry._

"_I have already chosen my bride. It's Yuki over here." He gestured to a stunning white cat that had been following his red soldiers, and she gasped with surprise. He walked over to her and held her paws in his own. "I was hoping for a different way to express this, but will you marry me, Yuki?" She stared at him, and then smiled lovingly._

"_Yes, Lune." They embraced each other fiercely as Haru finally came to the opening at the top. She reached upward with one arm and started trying to pull herself into the hole. But she was so weak from what she had already gone through…_

"_You should have said so earlier!" The cat wearing gold looked upwards toward the brown cat as sunlight pierced the sky. His huge eyes, including the purple gem narrowed in concentration. "Hmm." _

_Haru had finally pulled herself through the opening, using her good arm for balance as the wind played harshly with her hair, still long around the ears like a human. She looked expectedly at her paws as they slowly morphed back into hands, excitement beginning to grow as her body shifted around to resemble a human girl's. But the change stopped there. Her hands were stuck between a human hand and a cat paw, and her shod feet prevented an accurate analysis of them. She waited for a few more seconds, willing the change to be completed. As the seconds turned into minutes, the realization hit her that this was the closest she was going to get to becoming a human again. Her eyes overflowed, and she buried her face into her skirt-covered knees to start weeping._

"_You're kidding. After everything…everything I had gone through…it still wasn't enough?" She cried harder, her skirt slowly becoming warm and moist. "I'm so sorry Mom. Looks like I can't come home after all." She continued to weep as the screen expanded to show that she was several thousand feet in the air above Tokyo, but she didn't notice as clouds flew past her head._

Naoko bit back a sob as she reached for her girl again, Jonathan's firm grip holding her back. She turned to tell him off, but was stopped when she saw tears in his eyes as well. He stared angrily at the gold wearing cat as the screen faded for now.

"Now you know. Mother was taken to the Cat Kingdom to marry the cat prince she saved the day before she disappeared from your world. She tried her hardest to get back to her world, but it still wasn't quite enough." Naoko shook her head angrily.

"But if she wanted to return so badly, then why didn't she take the offer?!" Jonathan smiled sadly, taking a handkerchief from his breast pocket and offering it to her. She took it and started wiping away the tears with a vengeance.

"Please understand. Mother hadn't eaten or slept well for nearly twenty-four hours leading up to that moment, and her emotions were out of control. The Haru you heard turn down the offer has had six years to calm down and adjust to her new body. And she had Father to consider." The screen flickered to life again.

_Haru was inside a large gym, wearing tight-fitting sweats and practicing a high kick on a large punching bag. Someone had taken a marker to it until it resembled the cat wearing gold. Her arm was usable again._

Naoko turned back to Jonathan, her confusion clear.

"That cat was the king responsible for Mother's predicament. After Uncle Lune and Aunt Yuki brought Mother down the tower again, Lune's father suggested that she marry him instead, since she didn't have anywhere else to go." She turned back to the screen, her eyes glittering icily.

"Kick it harder, Haru! Use your back muscles; you have them for a reason." She laughed at herself, surprised that she remembered that much from her own rebellious stage. Jonathan chuckled too.

"She can't hear you. I'd show you her response to his offer, but I had nightmares for a month after my first viewing. Don't worry; she tore him apart until he was so scared of her that he abdicated the throne to Uncle Lune." Naoko smiled proudly.

"That's my girl." Jonathan smiled, and then turned her attention back to the screen.

_The white cat from before came through the red curtain that substituted for a door, a white envelope in her hand. She stared at Haru a little, obviously scared to interrupt the half-cat while she was training herself._

"_Haru, this came for you." The brown cat gave the punching bag a final swipe before turning to the cat._

"_Thanks, Yuki. How are you feeling?" The white cat laughed as she rubbed at her belly, a slight bump evident._

"_Still feeling good. The training going okay?" Haru nodded as she opened the letter to start reading._

"_I know Lune doesn't appreciate using his father's image to help me train harder, but hey, it helps." Her eyes scanned the letter as the white cat laughed._

"_I'm surprised that you haven't started using Artemis's image instead. He should have known better than to send you mice." Haru nodded, her eyes becoming sad as she closed the letter, her head hanging slightly. Yuki noticed the mood change. "Did your mother ask you to come home again?" The brown cat sighed._

"_Yes. But I've already mentioned that she hates cats, and if she sees me like this…I don't want her to kick me out of her life for growing whiskers and a tail."_

Naoko shuddered, since that's what she had done to her husband. And what her daughter now thought she had done to her. She turned to Jonathan.

"I don't hate cats, but I was scared that Renny-" she cut off; shocked that she still called him that. But when they had met, 'Renaldo' just seemed so formal, something he definitely wasn't. Jonathan gazed at her sadly.

"You were scared that he would tell your daughter what he turned into, and you were embarrassed to be married to a feline?" Naoko nodded, feeling ashamed of herself. "Not telling Mother that Grandfather had turned into a cat I can understand. But why not tell her about him in general? Why cut everything that reminded you of him out of your life and Mother's?"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Naoko looked down, biting her lip self-consciously. She wondered if Haru's future husband had the same ability as Jonathan to draw the truth out of people.

"Pride, I guess. I mean, Haru looked so much like I did at two years old, I thought she would grow up to be just like me and never have problems from the Cat Kingdom. My parents were hippies and I had been raised as a vegetarian. That's why I became attracted to Renny; he was the embodiment of everything my parents didn't like. A great meat cook, captain of the martial arts team in college…" her voice trailed off as she remembered. Her heart could still skip a beat, thinking about his roguish smile. But how could she have a working marriage with a cat? Jonathan looked at her, a small smile on his lips as the screen flickered again.

_The scene was now in the human world, on an open grassy field. A group of college girls were lying down on blankets as they giggled over the boys trying to kill each other. Showing an extraordinary amount of bravery, one girl stood up and walked toward the battlefield, her crimson hair flashing gold highlights in the sun. Her target was a well-built youth, his hair somewhere between dark blonde and medium brown. He took down two more opponents before noticing her approach, a heavy blush taking over his features._

"_Um, hey Naoko."_

The older one turned to the cat at her side, her eyes wide with shock as the girl in the screen shyly asked the boy to teach her how to fight. She never became good at it, but the goal was to spend time with the cute captain. Jonathan grinned.

"You know? Fighting's what brought my parents together as well."

_The screen changed again, showing an orange and cream version of Jonathan wearing a gray suit. He grinned as he jumped down a window with a cane raised at a certain brown cat on the training grounds below._

Naoko gasped while the cat next to her laughed. "Father was always a terrible show-off for Mother." Naoko stared in amazement, watching her daughter spar her future husband. Her body moved fluidly in time with her staff, making her movements akin to poetry. But her blows clearly packed a punch.

"Why did Haru turn into a fighter?" Jonathan grinned again, the scene shifting once more.

_Haru was in her school uniform again, but her hands had shifted into paws, and she didn't have whiskers yet. She was inside a stone labyrinth, trying to figure out the way to the tower in the middle. But it was much taller than it had been last time it was on the screen, and it was perfectly erect. Behind the brown cat, several green cats were marching toward her from on top of the walls. They jumped off and surrounded her. Haru gasped and held her paws to her chest in terror as they closed in. The leader of the group laughed as he came closest, a spear in one hand._

"_I don't know why the King sent all of us after one little girl kitten. Come along Princess, play time's over." Haru suddenly stood straighter, her eyes beginning to flame._

"Oh dear." Naoko giggled, knowing about her daughter's temper.

_The brown cat raised her arms in front of her, and kicked the offensive cat hard in the leg with a loud 'Hai-yah!' The cat collapsed, dropping his spear as he cried and bent over the knee. Haru leaned over and picked up the spear, the other cats now watching her with a trace of fear. She glared at them and raised the stolen weapon._

"_If I'm going back to the castle, it will be with assembly required. Nobody decides who I am or what I do but me."_

What Naoko saw next was one of the strangest sights of her life. Haru may have been a bad fighter, but the guards were clearly worse. They just swung their weapons at her, clearly scared to hurt her, but she slipped between them with ease, her technique slightly recognizable from the kung fu movies the red-haired woman used to watch with her husband, and later caught her daughter watching a few times, the attic being a lousy hiding place. For the first time in her life, she was grateful that her daughter had disobeyed her. Naoko started laughing when she recognized Haru's sorry attempts at a box step, remembering the embarrassing call from school after her first dance lesson.

_The box step left several sore spots on the green cats, who finally recognized her as their superior, and ran back to the castle with their tails literally between their legs. The brown cat watched the ones that could still retreat with a mixture of amusement and horror._

"_You're kidding. A schoolgirl can take you guys down when she's tired and hungry? If I were your ruler, I'd be ashamed!" she screamed at them before continuing on her way, the spear still in her paw._

Jonathan laughed again, clearly getting a large kick out of his mother's antics.

"After Uncle Lune took the throne, he asked Mother to train his army and be his adopted sister. Since she didn't have a better option, she accepted." He checked his pocket watch, and then got up to retrieve a sword leaning against a corner. He tore a small hole, revealing himself on the other side, facing the cat that had kidnapped Naoko. The Jonathan on her side passed the sword to his past self, and then closed the rip, his grandmother watching him.

"Doesn't it get confusing, traveling around time?" He grinned at her while reclaiming his seat.

"Sometimes. It helps that I keep a careful record of what I do in the order I do it so I can pass it onto my past self when I mature and gain the ability to time travel. It's a very tricky business, and people tend to get irritated with me if I refuse to go back in time to save a bowl from getting smashed or something like that. But you have to consider all angles of what changing one thing can do." He sighed again.

"There's something I didn't have the courage to tell my parents. They know that if I didn't interfere with the day Mother was brought here, she would have lived the rest of her life as a human. She never would have married if she had been returned to you, because no guy could ever compare to Father in her eyes. What I didn't tell them is that all it would have taken then for Mother to stay in a half-cat shape is for me to stretch her speed for five seconds." Naoko stared at him.

"Then what do you call Haru crying on the tower?" He sighed again.

"This truly is going to take a while."

Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Naoko leaned back in her seat, stunned. If Jonathan's father had been with Haru when she had asked for help and Jonathan had just stretched her speed, than the elder Creation would have offered her a place in the Refuge. But then her daughter wouldn't have gone through the training needed in order to prevent various assassination attempts on her royal brother and sister, and Baron would have been too distracted by her to have noticed anything until it was too late. And the Cat Kingdom would have gone to ruin without her daughter's training program for the military.

Understanding the cat side of things, Haru's letters made more sense. When she had sent the first one, Naoko had been alarmed when it said that if the police could find her where she was, than they deserved to bring her home. The letters had told her that Haru had saved a guy's life and accepted a job as part of a security team at his private family estate. She had wondered why the police records could find no trace of a rich guy named Lune.

But something else had been bothering Naoko. Something that she desperately didn't want to bring up, but needed to.

"What happened to Renny?"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

What Jonathan showed Naoko next was hard for her to take in. She watched her husband slowly lose his slim physique in a vain attempt to eat fish until he could feel better, nearly crying with every bite. She watched him wander endless streets, until resting in an office identical, maybe even the same one, as the one she now sat in.

_The orange and cream cat from before was sitting in a chair across from the huge white cat, a cup of tea between his hands as he listened to the cat's tale of woe. He had his coat and hat hanging on a rack behind the same desk Jonathan rested his on._

"…_not only that, but when I last checked in on her, she had changed her name and my daughter's to her maiden one! Thanks to her, I can't be there for my girl when she's growing up and needs her daddy." The cat doll looked at him sadly._

"_My, that is quite a predicament. Unfortunately, this is something that I can't help with, especially since you won't mention any names, including your own." Even the voice and accent was similar to Jonathan's. The undercurrent of his question was clear. The white cat grunted, his eyes distant._

"_That name lost its importance when my wife denied who I was. Call me whatever you want." A large crow on the balcony above them opened his beak, possibly to offer an insulting name, but decided not to say something, his face a little sad. The cat figurine held his chin._

"_Muta will serve as your name. Well, since I can't help you with your family problem, I think I can help you with accommodations. If you don't object to helping me with other cases, you're welcome to stay here as long as you like." The bird jerked._

"_Baron, the Refuge is for Creations." The orange and cream cat looked up at him, his smile a little sad._

"_But since you and I are the only inhabitants, I don't see why he can't stay. That is, if you two can learn to behave civilly." The crow and white cat glared at each other._

Jonathan laughed at that.

"They never did. They can cooperate on cases fine, but they never really stop insulting each other. They are truly good friends, underneath it all." Naoko nodded, never taking her eyes off the white cat.

"Does he hate me?" The red cat looked at her sadly.

"Not quite. He's angry for the things you've done, but he still thinks of you. Why else would he check on you as well as his daughter?" She looked down at her feet, ashamed that she didn't even tell him Haru was fine, that time he approached her six years ago. Her heart turned as heavy as lead, thinking about all the fish cracker boxes she knew had to be from her husband. In her mind's eye, she could see the first time Haru tried to flip a pancake, even her footing resembling her father's.

"_Look at this, Mommy! Isn't this a cool trick?"_

"_Mommy, how come other kids have a daddy?" _

"_What's wrong with cats? Don't you know I can talk to them?"_

"_If you hate fighting movies, than why do you have them so I __**can **__sneak them?!"_

"_Was Dad in the mob or something? I can handle whatever it is if you'd just tell me."_

"_Come on, Mom; at least let me get that last ingredient…"_

"Does my daughter hate me?" Her voice was small and weak, knowing that she's fully deserved it if Haru did. Jonathan's face saddened, and the screen flickered again.

_Jonathan's parents were now walking down a long hallway, their arms and tails intertwined lovingly. Haru had a soft smile on her lips as she leaned her head on Baron's shoulder._

"_Of course, we'll want to make frequent visits to the Cat Kingdom. Even if Lune and Yuki wouldn't miss us, I'm pretty sure Sweet Pea will want to see as much of Jonathan as possible, after he's born." Her fiancé chuckled._

"_If it were any family but ours, the concept of a princess being in love with our son before he's even born would be quite confusing."_

Naoko turned back to Jonathan, who she was certain was blushing, the red fur disguising it well. He coughed uncomfortably.

"If nothing else, my visit to Princess Haru's past has explained her puzzling behavior while I was growing up, as well as that of her parents." The woman laughed.

"If she's as adorable as my Haru says she is, I don't see why you should be sweating." He smiled a little foolishly, obviously thinking that the princess was very much adorable.

"You would understand if you were in my position. But let me worry about my love life." He gestured toward the screen.

_Baron squeezed Haru again, softly inhaling the scent of her hair. Haru's eyes warmed as she snuggled closer into his embrace. Suddenly, they looked sad._

"_Thank heaven Dad will be joining us after the honeymoon. I don't have a clue on how to raise children." Her lover smiled again._

"_If it makes you feel better, neither do I. But Jonathan proves that we do okay as parents." She nodded, a smile on her lips._

"_That kid of ours…" He suddenly turned to her, noticing that the smile wasn't reaching her eyes._

"_Thinking about your mother again?" She smiled again, not bothering to deny it._

"_Just wishing she was a little less stubborn. I mean, she's even admitted in her letters over the years that since I left, her life's been nothing but quilts, bills, and camping out next to the mailbox for my next letter. So why would she pick that over me and Dad? She didn't even ask for your name when I told her I was engaged." He tightened his grip on her, willing the pain to go away._

_To the side of the screen, a strange shadow lurked closer to the couple._


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Baron ran his fingers through Haru's hair again, kissing her ear.

"Maybe she just needs time to-" he was cut off as a streak of red flew over his head, slamming solidly into something behind the couple. He and Haru broke apart into a fighting stance, which melted as they got a good look of what was behind them.

An aging red cat was on top of what looked like a feline made of shadows. A little distance from them, a jagged dagger had been thrown. The red cat hissed at the shadow one.

"Don't…touch…my baby!" Haru's eyes shot open, recognizing her mother's voice and vocal capacity. Baron stared disbelievingly, and then laughed.

"Looks like our boy's been tampering again. Thank you, Mrs. Yoshioka."

"That's 'Mom' to you." Naoko glared at the cat beneath her paws as he trembled in fear. A hole appeared next to the red cat, Jonathan clearly heard to be laughing.

"My gratitude, Grandmother. I'll take it from here." A hand came from nowhere to grab the shadow cat, Naoko reluctantly getting off so her grandson could pull it into the hole. A few seconds later, what she had done hit her.

"Why, that tricky little…he knew I'd do that!" Haru laughed, and walked up to her mother to squeeze her.

"Does this mean you don't hate cats anymore?" Naoko growled again as she hugged her daughter for the first time in six years.

"Just the ones that threaten my girl. Haru, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry…" The brown cat stared in amazement as her mother broke down into real tears, never letting go of her. "I'm sorry for letting you down. I'm sorry for not being a better mother. I'm sorry that I never told you about your father. I should have…I should have…" Over her mother's shoulder, Haru could see the royal family running up to her, probably from the loud yell her mother gave. Muta was holding Sweet Pea as he screeched to a halt, recognizing who the red cat was. His eyes widened in astonishment, unable to even breathe. The king and queen looked back at him, and then understood who the cat was. Naoko's face was still buried in her daughter's shoulder, not noticing anything else.

"What I did to your father was inexcusable by any meaning of the word, and I don't deserve to be his wife. I should have accepted him and you the way you both were, and nothing I can do will replace the years we've lost. Whatever it takes, Sweetheart. I'll do whatever it takes to earn your forgiveness and your father's. But I doubt he'll even want to talk to me, considering what I put him through." Haru locked eyes with her father, whose own was filled with conflict. He bit his lower lip as he set Little Haru down, the princess staring at the cat that her big sister had told her so much about. The elder Haru wrapped her arms around her mother and squeezed.

"I'm just happy that you want it, Mom. Are you aware that you're a feline?" This caused the red cat to stiffen, and she stepped away from her daughter to examine herself. The paws were very delicate, and her new fur was soft and silky. Somehow, she had lost her clothes jumping through the time rip, but she didn't feel naked. She felt her new face and tail with both paws, Muta slowly walking up behind her.

"This is really weird."

"Don't worry; you get used to it." Her ears perked upwards, and she jump-turned to look at her husband, his expression unreadable. They stared at each other for a few seconds. Naoko's tail twitched nervously. She bowed down low before the man she let down, her cat nose touching the hallway tiles.

"I'm sorry, Renny." Everyone besides Muta gave a jerk, never hearing that version of his name before. He opened his mouth a few times, trying to get sound to issue, but it wouldn't. A few more seconds passed, every muscle in Naoko's body stiff and rigid as she struggled not to cry again. He sighed and touched her shoulder.

"Come walk with me. We haven't really talked in a while."

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Haru watched her parents with pride as they walked side by side down the corridor, her mother almost having to run in order to keep up with her husband's long strides. Baron wrapped his arms around her again.

"So, miracles _do_ happen." Haru nodded, wrapping one arm around his, the other one being occupied. By what? She looked down, surprised to see a bulky package. Baron looked at it too, grinning.

"I wonder what Jonathan's up to _this_ time." Haru giggled as she started opening it.

"I'm getting the feeling that our boy's going to get blamed for a lot of things from now on."

"The real question will be if he deserves it." She nodded again, the wrapping beginning to come loose. A letter stuck out first, Baron taking it. The royal family drew closer to hear its contents.

_Dear Mother and Father, _

_This is for cheating you out of punishing Artemis. It's made out of a high durability material, so be as harsh with it as you want. But don't try anything with acid._

_Love, _

_Jonathan_

"I wonder what it is," Haru mused as the wrapping fell away to reveal a neatly folded hide with black fur. Baron's heart sped up, seeing red streaks within the folds. He took the bundle from his fiancé and shook it out. The princess shrieked, thinking that a certain rebel leader had risen from the grave. Haru laughed as the princess clung to her.

"Don't worry, Sweet Pea. It's just a throw rug."


End file.
